Budget process

Budget process

Brings out the best (and the worst)

Elecotrate should witness the

results of their efforts.

Thank goodness for a free and democratic society!

It provides us with the opportunity to empower

those whom we feel are the most able and qualified to represent us-in the White House, the state houses, the Congress and, often most importantly, in local offices. This past election brought some significant changes to the Rappahannock scene, especially to the School Board. Two quite able and qualified school board members were ousted and replaced by two who, some say, were elected to “bring some fiscal responsibility to the school budget.”

With Monday night’s School Board Budget Public Hearing, the process is now nearly complete, but not much influence was apparently wielded by our new Stonewall-Hawthome School Board representative, Franklin Warner, nor by the new Jackson District representative, Rebecca Cordani.

During the school budget development process neither Mr. Warner nor Ms. Cordani were able to pare much fat from the budget-perhaps because there was not much to pare. Not a sole spoke out at Monday’s hearing in opposition to the size of the budget, and many spoke in support of budget increases. Mr. Warner took advantage of the hearing to speak at length, but it is not clear on what subject he spoke, and Ms. Cordani was, as is not atypical, absent from the proceedings.

There is a responsibility implicit in the right to elect. That responsibility is to observe the results of that election to ensure that the correct choice was made. It is anything but obvious that those who engineered the replacement of Dr. John Tole and Mr. Ron Makela have attended a School Board meeting or Public Hearing to witness the results of what they have wrought. It is high time that they did.